Revenue management systems and methods with re-rating and rebilling

ABSTRACT

A revenue management system for telecommunication systems is disclosed. The revenue management system can have multiple integrated modules. The modules can include a revenue generation module, a revenue capture module, a revenue collection module, a revenue intelligence module, and others. The revenue management system can also be configured to simultaneously manage revenue for prepaid, postpaid, now-paid payment models.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application of and claims priority toU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/415,759, filed May 1, 2006 byJayaprakash Krishnamoorthy et al and entitled “REVENUE MANAGEMENTSYSTEMS AND METHODS”, which claims priority to and incorporates byreference U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/676, 327, filedApr. 30, 2005, both of which are incorporated herein by reference, intheir entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to systems and methods for revenue management.Specifically, this invention related to revenue management fortelecommunication systems.

2. Summary of the Related Art

Telecommunications account management is coordinated by software onservers in data communication with the telecommunications network. Onthe simplest level, these revenue management servers track useraccounts, managing balances and preparing bills. With the development ofvarious telecommunication services and service plans, account managementhas grown in complexity in recent years. Providers of telecommunicationsservices desire revenue management software that can manage the complexservices and service plans, and can also provide intelligent analysisand feedback to improve customer satisfaction and fiscal performance.

Revenue management software modules often are configured to handleindividual applications. When various software modules are assembled asa whole package, the modules are not originally intended to be used witheach other, reducing efficiencies, if even workable at all.

Furthermore, revenue management systems fail to provide detailedanalysis of the user base and provide feedback to help coordinate futureactions from the service provider.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A system for managing revenue on a telecommunications network isdisclosed. The telecommunications network can be wired or wireless.

A system for managing revenue from complex subscriber groups, (e.g.,corporate subscribers) is disclosed. The system can be configured tosimultaneously manage revenue for prepaid, postpaid, now-paid paymentmodels. The system can manage revenue from third-party settlements.

The system can manage revenue from flexible pricing and rating ofbundles of services of voice, data, and content. The system can managerevenue from communications based on the originating source and contentpartner of the content. The system can also manage revenue from systemsneeding differentiation with text/SMS pricing and free voice callbundles.

The system can maintain a network agnostic position. A network agnosticposition is the ability to operate over any network (e.g., IP andcircuit-switched, fixed and mobile, voice, or data).

The system can have a revenue intelligence module. The revenueintelligence module can predict results for various revenue models. Therevenue intelligence module can identify price plan optimization,opportunities for cost controls, and define services recommended for themarket.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components of a networkenvironment in which an embodiment of the present invention may beimplemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A revenue management system is disclosed. The revenue management systemcan be configured for managing usage of networks (e.g., voice, data,energy). The revenue management system can monitor user accounts storedin a database. The database can be in data communication with therevenue management system. The revenue management system can be madefrom computer hardware (e.g., within a network server) and/or software(e.g., operating on a network server). The revenue management system canhave one or more modules. The modules can be function-specific computerhardware and/or software.

The revenue management system can be used for telecommunications andother data-based services. The revenue management system can bemulti-module and also fully convergent on a single platform solution.The revenue management system can provide a fully convergent systemallowing subscribers to have both prepaid and postpaid payment methodswithin a single account.

The revenue management system can have a real-time interactive mode fortime-critical, high performance, always available elements. For lesstime critical activities, the revenue management system processes theseactivities in a high performance batch processing interface. The revenuemanagement system can have central revenue management functions for“back office” functions, such as customer management and financialreporting.

The revenue management system can have a real-time platform. Thereal-time platform can retrieve data from current operations foranalysis or other review. The real-time platform can provide a singlecustomer view across all services, with full data integrity.

The revenue management system can have a revenue generation module, arevenue capture module, a revenue collection module, a revenueintelligence module, a balance management module, or combinationsthereof.

All of the modules can analyze the database and the service-providertrends or requests and/or customer usage trends to produce results andconclusions described herein.

Revenue Generation Module

The revenue generation module can enables services to be delivered tocustomers, optimally priced for the user, service provider, and serviceprovider's partners. The revenue generation module provides real-timeaccess to customer data. Therefore, service providers can respondquickly to changing market conditions by rapidly introducing competitiveproducts and services, ensuring they retain the most profitablecustomers.

The revenue generation module can define pricing, promotions, andservice bundles with a unified pricing interface. The revenue generationmodule can provide customers one tool and one process for any paymentmethod. The revenue generation module can support one-time,non-recurring events (e.g., registration/cancellation charges, commerce,content, various service usage) as well as prepaid support for recurringevents of varying duration (e.g., weekly, monthly, multi-monthly, andannual events), tiered, volume, multi-service discounting options aswell as user-defined discounting.

For example, the revenue generation module can create discounting basedon times of the day and/or days of the week, group pricing options suchas closed users groups and friends and family, time and/or calling zone-and location-based pricing, transport-based (e.g., per minute, perkilobytes) pricing, value-based (e.g., per ring tone, per game, permessage) pricing or combinations thereof.

The revenue generation module can define proration rules. The revenuegeneration module can define the linkage between products and servicesto entries in the general ledger (G/L).

The revenue generation module can capture and fulfill orders promptly.Orders for prepaid wireless service: include order entry, customerinquiries, disputes, payments, vouchers, and combinations thereof.

The revenue generation module can assign one or more SIM/ESN numbers toan account. The revenue generation module can perform number managementwith support for number portability.

The revenue generation module can enable viewing (e.g., over theinternet) of real-time updates of all balances and activity related toservice usage. The revenue generation module can enable customers toself-manage their services, balances, payments, and top-ups throughtelephone and/or internet-based interfaces.

The revenue generation module can support multiple-languages. Therevenue generation module can perform a complete audit trail of allusage and CSR activity. The revenue generation module can calculaterevenue sharing with partners and settlement processing for network,content, roaming, or any other partner arrangement. The revenuegeneration module can handle multiple partner rules (e.g., rules whereeach partner has its own agreement within which individual rules forrevenue share calculations apply).

The revenue generation module can offer real-time, leakage-free accessto third party content and applications-secure connections between thirdparties and the service provider including preauthorization of serviceuse against any prepaid balances.

The revenue generation module can define revenue share agreements (e.g.,percentage based, fixed fee; combination)

The revenue generation module can enable telecommunication networkservice for a customer. The revenue generation module can create andmanage service, provide service activation and deactivation. The revenuegeneration module can provide provisioning and maintain informationrelated to device use on the telecommunication network.

The revenue generation module can configure new services andservice-related attributes with a graphical user interface. The revenuegeneration module can outline service usage record formats withspreadsheet-like interface. The revenue generation module can configureprovisioning tags for incorporation into the service order. The revenuegeneration module can support synchronous and asynchronous workflow. Therevenue generation module can define monetary and non-monetary resources(e.g., U.S. dollars, Euros, number of free downloads, ringtonespurchased)

Revenue Capture Module

The revenue capture module can maximize market share using competitivepricing models and flexible balance and credit control to enable anyservice for any subscriber. As network services are authorized by therevenue management system and consumed by the user, transaction data arecaptured, rated, discounted, and charged by the revenue capture modulewhile balances are managed. Real-time interactions reduce the risk ofrevenue leakage, improve customer satisfaction, and encourage usage.

The revenue capture module can authorization telecommunication networkservice. The revenue capture module can authenticate customers andauthorize service and guide transactions through network integration.The revenue capture module can integrate the revenue management systemto network elements through an API framework.

The revenue capture module can preauthorize service usage according todata stored in the database in real-time. The revenue capture module canprerate transactions according to the subscriber's current service plansand up-to-date real-time balances, without impacting the actual balance.The revenue capture module can provide-advice of charge (AoC) to thesubscriber, for example, so the subscriber knows what they are payingprior to the charge against an account balance.

The revenue capture module can work in conjunction with a balancemanagement module to reserve balances as defined by the service provider(e.g., prepaid content delivery). The revenue capture module cananalyze, classify, enhance, split, and assemble transactions prior torating. The revenue capture module can integrate network elementsdirectly or via mediation devices for event collection.

The revenue capture module can map external service codes in eventrecords to internal service codes, service classes, and usage classes.The revenue capture module can normalize event records to an internal,extensible format. The revenue capture module can validate all datafields to ensure data integrity. The revenue capture module can assemblemultiple event records into a single event for rating. The revenuecapture module can split event records into multiple copies fordistribution to multiple processing streams or external systems (e.g.,for fraud management). The revenue capture module can skip or discardrecords according to rules defined by the prepaid wireless serviceprovider.

The revenue capture module can guide usage records to the appropriatebillable account. The revenue capture module can enrich the eventrecords with data from external sources (e.g., birthdays, closed usergroup indicators).

The revenue capture module can rate and discount transactions andrevenue share using monetary and non-monetary resources. The revenuecapture module can identify pricing and discounting as defined for thesubscriber and execute the pricing and discounting on the subscriber'saccount. The revenue capture module can support real-time transactionalrating (e.g., often required for prepaid services) as well as high-speednear real-time batch processing. The revenue capture module can definean unlimited number of chargeable event types by using an included GUI.

According to one embodiment, re-rating can be triggered, automaticallyin some cases, if backdated operations such as plan purchase,cancellation, or transition are detected. The re-rating need not occurimmediately. Instead a queue can be created and the job may be run atthe operator's discretion during off-peak hours, for example.

In some cases, it may not be possible to back out and recalculatebilling time events such as folds, billing time discounts, cycle feecalculations, rollover calculations, and billing time taxation.According to one embodiment, for billed events an adjustment can beposted in the current period; for events that are still unbilled, shadowevents can be created so that the bill can be accurate and audit trailscan be maintained.

Since there can be events that are rated by both the real-time ratingengine and the pipeline, these events can be reapplied in the samesequence, so as to not cause errors in the balance impacts. For example,a system event from the real-time rating engine may grant 100 freeminutes during a cycle. If these minutes are assumed to exist from thebeginning of the month, the consumption of these minutes may not becorrect. In order to address these issues, the real-time pipeline can beenhanced to handle this re-rating. So that balances are correctlyaffected, the real-time pipeline can sequence system and session eventsfrom the real-time rating engine and file based transactions from thepipeline.

The revenue capture module can manage account balances, such as monitorresource availability, manage reservations, maintain thresholds, andcharge transactions. The revenue capture module can support currency andnon-currency balances. The revenue capture module can monitoruser-configured balance thresholds and send events to other systems forprocessing. The revenue capture module can define balance rollover rulesfor any balance (e.g., monthly plan minutes). The revenue capture modulecan configure one or more balance groups at the account or service levelfor a subscriber. The revenue capture module can reserve portions ofbalances in real-time, as services are requested, for example, in orderto support simultaneous use of a balance group without leakage orbalance overruns. The revenue capture module can validate usage forapplication by a potential subscriber against a balance or multiplebalances.

Revenue Collection Module

The revenue collection module can ensure bills and invoices aregenerated and appropriate monies are collected from the correct debtors.The revenue collection module can post to accounts receivables andgeneral ledgers accounts while handling all payments terms, settlements,and disputes to ensure an accurate accounting of all revenue. Therevenue collection module can produce a real-time, accurate view ofrevenue, for example, providing insight to customer profitability aswell as the health of the business, while enabling the provider torespond more quickly to changing market dynamics.

The revenue collection module can aggregate all the bill items andperform the cycle-end billing process. The revenue collection module canapply billing time discounts based on aggregated volumes, calculatingrollovers, granting and resetting of resources, performing resourceconversion (i.e., folds), applying deferred taxes, applying cyclecharges, or combinations thereof. The revenue collection module canutilize non-cyclical billing options for billing subscribers immediatelyfor current charges, for one-time purchases, in advance of service beingdelivered, or combinations thereof.

The revenue collection module can generate one or more bills forcorporate hierarchies. The revenue collection module can calculate taxesthrough integration with an external application or service provider(e.g., Billsoft Vertex, Worldtax Intl.). The revenue collection modulecan configure invoice formats in XMUXSL or utilize external invoicingsoftware such as DOC1. The revenue collection module can generate hardand soft copy invoices.

The revenue collection module can manage general ledgers and integratewith EW systems. The revenue collection module can selectively allowservice representatives to manage desired functions, for example issuingcredits, handling disputes, adjustments, top-ups, refunds, orcombinations thereof.

The revenue collection module can support multiple currencies. Therevenue collection module can support traditional general ledgeraccounting through the use of a General Ledger (GIL) interface. Therevenue collection module can track revenue in accordance with generallyaccepted accounting principals (GAAP). The revenue collection module canhave an API integration to Financial EW systems such as those from SAPor Oracle.

The revenue collection module can process payments and vouchers andintegrate to payment gateways. The revenue collection module can supportmultiple payments methods, for example, credit card, debit card, cash,check, prepaid, or combinations thereof. The revenue collection modulecan allow subscribers to utilize multiple payment methods per account.

The revenue collection module can have prebuilt interfaces to severalthird party clearinghouses (e.g., Paymentech, Bertelsmann-payment APIframework) to quickly integrate to other payment centers.

The revenue collection module can have GUIs for supporting processing ofincoming payments. The revenue collection module can have completevoucher management, from voucher ordering through usage of the voucher.The revenue collection module can manage accounts for multi-service,multi-balance vouchers. The revenue collection module can create voucheraccounts that top up multiple currency/non-currency balances for one ormore services.

The revenue collection module can support sponsored charges for usagepaid for by a third party (e.g., corporation, advertiser, gift)

The revenue collection module can have accounts payable and netsettlements calculations, integrate with clearing houses, and providesettlements for roaming, content, and resellers. The revenue collectionmodule can define revenue share agreements as part of complete partnermanagement.

The revenue collection module can manage partner arrangements, such assharing revenues according to multiple methods, such as percentage basedsharing, fixed fee sharing, per transaction sharing, volume/tiersharing, aggregations, or combinations thereof.

The revenue collection module can support accounting for roaming,network, interconnect, content, reseller, and other partners. Therevenue collection module can connect to third party content inreal-time for service preauthorization and settlement. The revenuecollection module can provide complete support for roamingstandards-TAP3 and CIBER. The revenue collection module can calculatenet settlements. The revenue collection module can generate partnerinvoices.

Revenue Analysis Module

The revenue analysis module can provides real-time verification,reporting, analysis, and control of all events and actions which helpsmaximize revenue and minimize loss associated with fraud and revenueleakage. Understanding the revenue relationships with customers andpartners improves their satisfaction. Revenue Analysis ensures alltransactions are conducted with the fullest possible control, integrity,and completeness.

The revenue analysis module can provide data consistency, redundantprocesses, system high-availability, and transactional completeness. Therevenue analysis module can have automated monitoring and notificationto the service provider and/or the subscriber. The revenue analysismodule can perform error analysis on the subscriber accounts.

The revenue analysis module can check various control points in theevent processing process to check various expected parameters. Therevenue analysis module can perform a real-time audit trail of allactivity

The revenue analysis module can track and record CSRs actions, incomingusage, payment processing, web-self-care requests, or combinationsthereof. The revenue analysis module can automatically, or can enablemanual control by the service provider to, review and edit erred orpotentially fraudulent event records from various network and partnersources. The revenue analysis module can re-rate usage when errors arefound in how usage was processed.

The revenue analysis module can provide reporting on invoice and billreconciliation. The revenue analysis module can provide interactive anddynamic reporting, and notification. The revenue analysis module canprovide complete report design and scheduling framework. The revenueanalysis module can use prebuilt report templates provided for sales,marketing, accounting and finance data. The revenue analysis module canaccess any data in the database, including user-defined fields. Therevenue analysis module can export report data streams to otherapplications in XML format.

The revenue analysis module can have a revenue intelligence module(i.e., a sub-module). The revenue intelligence module can perform “whatif” revenue simulations and multiple re-ratings to deliver real-timepricing optimizations. The revenue intelligence module can similarlyprovide data to predict chum, revenue and margin, and customer lifetimevalues.

The revenue intelligence module can calculate the effect of new productpricing versus existing pricing or the competition's pricing. This caninclude taking multiple service bundles and convergent services intoaccount. The revenue intelligence module can increase availability ofinformation regarding business profitability or future marginopportunities of new services. The revenue intelligence module Addressmarket elasticity to maximize' margins For example. there maybe a five,percent shift in customer base to another price plan as a result of amarketing campaign. Or the introduction of a new service may move 10percent of calls in Zone X to this new service in Zone Z. Improve thecapability to negotiate changes in the value chain.

The revenue intelligence module can calculate an account holder'slifetime value and margin Relationship. For example, if the accountholder contacts a service representative, the service representative canaccess the revenue intelligence module and receive an analysis of theaccount holder's lifetime value and margin relationship. The servicerepresentative can then propose—according to actual customer behavior—aprice plan for the account holder that is in full alignment with theservice provider's business objectives.

The revenue intelligence module can be used to determine an individualcustomer's impact on profitability, how many (and what type of)customers are gained or lost per month, and the average cost of bringingnew customers onboard. The revenue intelligence module can provide theability to calculate costs per-customer of various price plans usingaggregated call behavior from customer data (or event data records).

The revenue intelligence module can analyze the fiscal success ofapplying discounts (including cross discounts), free units of all types,market elasticity, and other seasonal effects. Service providers canthen offer customers service packages that will enhance the servicerelationship (i.e., leading to increased revenue potential from thatcustomer and increased customer satisfaction).

The revenue intelligence module can enable service providers to detectand respond to changes in interconnection costs between internationalregions. The revenue intelligence module can use simulation engines toaudit all vendor invoices, perform profitability comparisons between buyrates versus sell rates, and perform simulations on the current customerbase with complex discounting programs and price elasticity.

The revenue intelligence module can decrease the time to effectivelyroll-out a new price plan by a service provider. Price planintroductions involve five steps: a creation phase including brainstormand developing ideas using general targeted customer segment; a customersegment identification phase identifying which customers are most likelyto accept the new price plan, evaluating competitive offers, andensuring the target corresponds with original ideas in the creationphase; an interconnection plan identification phase including reviewingdefault interconnection price plans and performing interconnectionpartner pre-optimization; a profitability testing phase utilizing theexpected service usage (and/or based on real usage), and calculating thecost for the subscriber of the service as well as for the serviceproviders.

For customers with low or negative margin, their characteristics(especially actual call behavior, contract and demographic data) must beanalyzed to identify and minimize any financial risk. Next, informeddecisions can be made whether to follow the assumptions, tune theservice costs, or to accept a known risk.

The customer segment identification phase, an interconnection planidentification phase, and profitability testing phase remain a closedloop until consensus is achieved. If the data during analysis is poor,each approximation made working with averages or skipping steps to savetime may entirely compromise the profitability of the new price plan orservice.

The revenue intelligence module can be configured to perform customersegment identification, interconnection plan identification, andprofitability testing. Therefore, the revenue intelligence module canimprove data quality and reduce the time spent (e.g., by automatinganalysis and making results immediately available to decision makers) inthe customer segment identification phase, interconnection planidentification phase, and profitability testing phase.

Instantaneously determined by the revenue intelligence module based onreal-time data for any given customer segment defined within databasesto which the module has access. Within hours. the proposal's effect onthe entire customer base can be identified. This enables informeddecisions to be made based on call behavior that will optimize costs inalignment with returns. Alternatively. when a new interconnect tariff islaunched, Revenue Intelligence enables product managers to immediatelydetermine the best average interconnection cost for all the customers inthe price plan and generate a list of current and best price plan costsper customer, providing the ability to change only price plans that willdeliver results.

Integration Modules

The revenue management system can be configured to easily integrate withother computer hardware and/or software systems. The revenue managementsystem can be configured to integrate, and can be integrated, with aninternet integration application, for example, Microsoft.NetIntegration. The internet integration application can enable the revenuemanagement system to easily integrate with any enterprise applicationintegration (EAI) middleware and allows third-party enterpriseapplications to access the revenue management system through the use ofweb services. For this particular enhancement, the web services can becreated using the internet integration application platform.

The revenue management system can be configured to integrate, and can beintegrated, with a business process transaction integration application,for example Microsoft BizTalk Adapter. The business process transactionintegration application feature can enable EAI with the revenuemanagement system on the business process transaction integrationapplication platform. The business process transaction integrationapplication can enable third-party enterprise applications to integratewith the revenue management system and orchestrate business processtransactions with the revenue management system platform. The businessprocess transaction integration application can enable any applicationto map its process definitions and workflow using the web servicesframework and enables the revenue management system to push documentsinto business process transaction integration application.

The revenue management system can be configured to integrate, and can beintegrated, with an external database revenue management application,for example, SAP RM-CA or Siebel TelcoOne. The integrated revenuemanagement system and application can provide total visibility and fullyintegrated control of customer transactions from rating, billing, andaccounts receivables including electronic bill presentment and paymentto general ledger accounting and controlling. The integrated revenuemanagement system and application can provide full control of thefinancial relationship with customers. The integrated revenue managementsystem and application can control bad debt risk through the enforcingof accountholder credit limits. The integrated revenue management systemand application can reduce days sales outstanding (DSO) throughefficient management of collections and dispute processes. Theintegrated revenue management system and application can increaseflexibility for customers by supporting additional payment options andpayment plans. The integrated revenue management system and applicationcan increase the efficiency of tracking and reporting of general ledgerdata by leveraging the synchronization between the applications. Theintegrated revenue management system and application can provide quickerresponse to customer inquiries through real-time retrieval of invoices.

Architecture

The revenue management system can have a system architecture. The systemarchitecture can have a network layer. The network layer can deliver thevoice, data, messaging, and content services to the end users. Thenetwork layer can handle all standard network signaling (e.g. SS7,CAMEL, WIN), call control, session management, and IVR functionassociated with individual service requests. The network layer caninteract with the Authentication, Authorization & Accounting (AAA) Layerduring specific trigger points to authorize or reauthorize use of aservice.

The AAA layer can provide AAA protocol mediation and detect failures atthe revenue capture layer (on which the revenue capture module canexecute), for example, for prepaid services. Network elements in thenetwork layer can communicate via various protocols including Diameter,Radius, OSA/Pariay, and proprietary methods over TCP/IP or UDP. The AAAlayer can translate these requests into API calls to the revenue capturelayer. The AAA layer can be responsible for providing 99.999% serviceavailability by detecting revenue capture module failures in processingrequests bound for that module locally according to user-definedbusiness rules.

In the revenue management system, the AAA layer can be managed by a AAAgateway. The AAA gateway can facilitate high-speed protocol translationto the network layer (network elements to AAA Gateway), mapping ofasynchronous protocols to synchronous protocols, measuring andguaranteeing the latency service levels for the prepaid backend, failuredetection for the revenue capture layer, failure handling by providing adegraded mode and an interim request storage facility, failure recoveryby replaying requests into the revenue capture module, and combinationsthereof.

The revenue capture layer can support the processing of authenticationand authorization requests coming from the AAA layer (i.e., AccessControl), prerating against current balances (e.g., as part of serviceauthorization) to make sure the account holder has enough funds,reserving portions of the balances (e.g., as part of serviceauthorization) to ensure simultaneous use of a balance for multipleservices does not cause leakage, enriching event record informationprior to rating for more complex rating and discounting schemes, ratingaccounting records once the service or transaction has been completed,applying various types of discounts, charging the service usage ortransaction against the current set of balances, and combinationsthereof.

The AAA gateway can communicate to the revenue capture layer usingTCP/IP and/or the PCP (Portal Communication Protocol) and/or theApplication Programmer Interface (API).

A central revenue management layer can be in communication with therevenue capture layer. The central revenue management layer can executethe revenue generation, revenue collection, and revenue analysis modulesdescribed supra. The central revenue management layer can be fullysupported in a revenue management platform. The central revenuemanagement layer can be the persistent data store for all required dataobjects from the revenue capture layer (e.g., customer information,pricing information, rated records, balances). The central revenuemanagement layer can communicate with the revenue capture layer whenstored data objects must be refreshed.

The AAA gateway can communicate with the network layer by means of theTCP/IP or UDP protocols. The protocol used for this communication can beDiameter or Parlay, HP MBI, or a proprietary protocol.

The AAA Gateway's front end to the network layer is asynchronous. Thatis, requests are received from the network layer and acknowledged uponreceipt. Once the operation requested is completed, the AAA gatewaysends a response to the calling network element within the network layerwith the results. The AAA gateway, in processing the requests from thenetwork layer, can act as a high speed protocol translator to therevenue capture layer while also making the conversion from asynchronousto synchronous translation.

The incoming requests can. be queued to “pipelines” specialized for eachAAA operation. Since the network elements can include timeout or retrymechanisms, some duplicate detection is handled with the AAA Gateway.The AAA Gateway can be stateless (i.e., the states are not persisted anddo not survive a crash), the final duplicate/fraud detection can beperformed in the revenue capture layer.

The AAA gateway's backend can have a pool of TCP/IP connections to therevenue capture layer. This configurable number of connections can beestablished at startup and can remain established for the life of thegateway process. The communication between the AAA gateway and therevenue capture layer can be synchronous. That is, each connection tothe revenue capture layer can remain blocked until the results of theoperation are returned to the AAA gateway.

Once these results are available, the results are translated back to thenetwork layer protocol and forwarded to the calling network element tocomplete the request. The AAA gateway can connect via TCP/IP to therevenue capture layer, for example, in a method identical to the rest ofthe clients (e.g. Pricing Center). Clients and RCP can communicate byPCP (Portal Communication Protocol). A client can invoke operations inthe revenue capture layer by calling the open API.

The AAA gateway can be the interface to all network elements includingservice control points (SCPs—call control and signaling primarily forprepaid voice services) for voice service delivery. The SCP can handleall signaling and call control associated with call setup, monitoring,and teardown. The AAA gateway can support communicating to the SCP inboth standard and proprietary protocols. This can include the ability tosupport multiple protocols from a single instance of the AAA gateway.

For example, prior to the start of a call originated from a GSM or CDMAnetwork, a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) in a Service Network canqueries the SCP for call origination instructions and callauthorization. The SCP can forward the authorization request to the AAAgateway, which in turn can call the APIs to request authorization fromthe revenue capture layer.

At this paint, there are a number of different checks that the revenuecapture layer can make, many of which are configurable by the serviceprovider. For example, the revenue capture layer can validate the calleridentification, services available, and balances. The revenue capturelayer can perform reverse rating to determine how long the caller canremain connected based on current monetary and non-monetary funds in thecaller's account. The reverse rating can account for the subscriber'spricing plan, including all discounts, without impacting thesubscriber's balance.

Following reverse rating, the revenue capture layer can create areservation to set aside a portion of one or more balances to be usedfor the service being requested. The revenue capture layer ca have aresource reservation framework for reserving resources. Resourcereservation reduce risk when can allow a customer to access multipleconcurrent network services and charge these services against a singleaccount balance without leakage. Resource reservations can be made onmultiple balances (e.g., free SMS Balance, and Euro balance) andmultiple types of balances (e.g., monetary and non-monetary). Therevenue management system can. create, extend, associate, and releaseresource reservations. The service provider can also customize resourcereservation rules for its revenue management system.

Once the reservation is established, a response can be forwarded back tothe service network and the call can be connected. If the callapproaches the length of the reservation, the SCP can request additionalfinds be reserved for the call in order to continue the call.Reauthorizations can occur like the original authorizations.

Once the call is disconnected by the calling or called party, theservice network can inform the SCP. The SCP can notify the AAA gatewayof the end of the voice call session. The revenue capture layer canreceive this notification from the AAA gateway and end the session andthe transaction before forwarding on to the centralized revenuemanagement layer.

The revenue management layer can persistently store (e.g., in a cacheand/or in the database) all rated event information in addition to theother data mentioned herein (e.g., customer data, pricing data). Therevenue management layer can persistently copy the subscriber's set ofbalances. Therefore, the rated event impact is made onto thesubscriber's set of balances prior to returning an acknowledgement backto the revenue capture layer.

Once the revenue capture layer receives this acknowledgement, thebalances can be updated in local memory and the reservation can bereleased.

The integration between a data control point (DCP—a network element thatinterfaces to GGSNs (GPRS) and PDSNs (CCMA 1X) to handle sessionmanagement and teardown for data sessions) and the revenue managementsystem can be essentially the same as for voice calls as for SCPs exceptthe integration is to the DCP instead of the SCP. The AAA gateway cansupport the chosen protocol (e.g., Radius, Diameter, HP MBI,proprietary) and forwards requests to the revenue capture layer via theAPI interface.

In an example of simultaneous service usage with resource reservation,the DCP can monitor traffic and service requests over a high-speed datatransport such as GPRS or CDMA 1X. The DCP then recognizes a request forthe mobile e-mail service. The DCP can invoke an authorization requestto the AAA gateway. The AAA gateway can then call the APIs to requestauthorization from the revenue capture layer.

The subscriber can have a non-monetary balance for mobile a-maildownloads. The revenue capture layer can run through a number ofverifications and the business logic before reserving 200 Kbytes foremail download. The DCP can be informed of the threshold and monitor thee-mail traffic flow. While downloading e-mail, the subscriber can decideto listen to streaming audio, for example. The DCP can requestauthorization from the revenue capture layer using the same process asnoted before. The revenue capture layer can reserve 20 minutes ofstreaming audio resource before responding back to the DCP.

After downloading a number of e-mail messages, the DCP can surpass areauthorization threshold and attempt to request additional funds orresources form the revenue capture layer. In this case, however, thereare no additional balances available for e-mail downloads and a denialis returned. The subscriber is allowed to continue service until theremaining portion of the original 200 Kbytes is used. In this scenario,the remaining portion of the balance that was allocated to the emaildownloads is utilized.

There are a number of options at this point for how the service providermay wish to handle the scenario including redirecting the subscriber toa self-care web site, requesting balance top-up, etc. The usage up tothis point can also be rated with balance updates by passing a usageevent record from the DCP to the revenue capture layer for processing.

The management revenue system can be used to manage accounts for voiceor non-voice wireless services, for example GPRS, Wi-Fi, SMS, and MMS.

The management revenue system can be used for managing revenuedistribution for partner programs. For example, a prepaid wirelesssubscriber can visit a content partner web site and request to purchasea piece of content (e.g., screensaver, audio clip, etc.). A contentserver can use a CDK to request authorization from the revenue controllayer, including a check of the pending charge versus existing funds. Inthis example, the revenue control layer can rate third party content, sothe revenue control layer can return the AoC amount as part of theresponse.

The third party content can be rated with the revenue control layer, orthe content provider can provide rated usage records, or both.Afterwards, the AoC is accepted to the subscriber via a service networkand the content is downloaded. Upon successful download, the contentserver forwards a usage event record to the revenue control layer, whichrates it. After rating, the event is passed to the revenue managementlayer, which updates the balances and stores the rated record inpersistent storage. The successful response is returned to the revenuecontrol layer which updates the balances in local memory and releasesany reservation that may have been made previously.

Revenue sharing and settlement for content partners can be handled inthe revenue management layer, where there are various options onsplitting revenues and settlement. The same process can apply regardlessof payment method.

The revenue management system can be integrated with a provisioningplatform, for example for GSM and CDMA-based services. The integrationor communication from the revenue management system to the provisioningplatform can be through a provisioning framework of the revenuemanagement system.

During an account creation, update, or deletion, the provisioningframework can generate a provisioning payload and pushes the payloadover a TCP/IP interface. The provisioning work order payload that isgenerated and sent is created in an XML format. The provisioning payloadcan be configurable and enables attributes from the account, service, ordevice associations to be contained in the XML payload. The provisioningframework comes with a simulator so that the interface can be easilytested.

The revenue management system can be integrated with a mediationplatform. The mediation platform can be connected to the networkelements. The revenue management system can be integrated to themediation platforms many times for wireless services, primarily by themediation device calling the APIs or by delivering batch files todedicated directories. The mediation device can perform the eventcollection from the network element and deliver the usage in raw formatto the revenue management system, which in turn can perform any numberof event enrichment functions available before rating, discounting, andbalance management.

The revenue management system can support traditional general ledgeraccounting through the use of a General Ledger (G/L) interface. G/Laccount codes can be assigned to balance impacts through a configurationfile or through a pricing center. As balance debits and credit occur,the corresponding G/L accounts can be affected. G/L account codes can beassigned to both rated and pre-rated events. Summaries of G/L accountimpacts can be viewed via standard reports or be exported into externalG/L systems. The revenue management system can be integrated to G/Lsystems (e.g., G/L systems by SAP, Oracle, Peoplesoft, and others).

The revenue management system can be integrated to payment gateways orclearinghouses, for example Paymentech, Bertelsmann (e.g., using Olivaand Financial Information Accounting System (FIAS)), or directly withbanks. The revenue management system can directly debit funds from thepayment gateways or clearinghouses including the use of credit cards.The connections to the clearinghouse may be online or batch.

The back-end of the revenue management system can be a relationaldatabase used for persistent storage. The database can be an Oracleand/or Microsoft SQL server. Standard SQL queries can be executed on thedatabase to extract data, including objects and attributes that may havebeen incorporated as part of a service provider specific solution.

Any elements described herein as singular can be pluralized (i.e.,anything described as “one” can be more than one). Any species elementof a genus element can have the characteristics or elements of any otherspecies element of that genus. The above-described configurations,elements or complete assemblies and methods and their elements forcarrying out the invention, and variations of aspects of the inventioncan be combined and modified with each other in any combination.

We claim:
 1. A method of rating services in a revenue management systemof telecommunications network, the method comprising: detecting by arevenue capture layer of the revenue management system a backdatedoperation related to a user in a current billing cycle, the operationbeing backdated to a date and wherein the backdated operation comprisesa change to a service plan of the user; and re-rating by the revenuecapture layer of the revenue management system service events for theuser occurring after the date based on the backdated operation and thechange to the service plan for the user, wherein the service eventscomprise a sequence of a plurality of real-time events and whereinre-rating the service events is performed based on the sequence of thereal-time events.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the backdatedoperation comprises a service plan purchase.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the backdated operation comprises a service plan cancellation.4. The method of claim 1, wherein the backdated operation comprises aservice plan transition.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein re-ratingservice events comprises: creating a queue of one or more re-ratingjobs; adding a re-rating job related to the backdated operation to thequeue; and running the re-rating job from the queue.
 6. The method ofclaim 5, wherein running the re-rating job from the queue is performedduring an off-peak period.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein re-ratingcomprises determining whether an event is a billed event or an unbilledevent.
 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising, in response todetermining the event is a billed event, posting an adjustment in thecurrent billing period.
 9. The method of claim 7, further comprising, inresponse to determining the event is an unbilled event, creating one ormore shadow events to account for the re-rating.
 10. The method of claim1, wherein the date is in a previous billing cycle.
 11. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the date is in the current billing cycle.
 12. A systemfor rating services in a revenue management system of telecommunicationsnetwork, the system comprising: a revenue capture layer communicativelycoupled with the telecommunication network supporting the services andadapted to detect a backdated operation related to a user in a currentbilling cycle, the operation being backdated to a date and wherein thebackdated operation comprises a change to a service plan of the user,and re-rate service events for the user occurring after the date basedon the backdated operation and the change to the service plan, whereinthe service events comprise a sequence of a plurality of real-timeevents and wherein re-rating the service events is performed based onthe sequence of the real-time events.
 13. The system of claim 12,wherein the backdated operation comprises a service plan purchase. 14.The system of claim 12, wherein the backdated operation comprises aservice plan cancellation.
 15. The system of claim 12, wherein thebackdated operation comprises a service plan transition.
 16. The systemof claim 12, wherein re-rating service events comprises: creating aqueue of one or more re-rating jobs; adding a re-rating job related tothe backdated operation to the queue; and running the re-rating job fromthe queue.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein running the re-rating jobfrom the queue is performed during an off-peak period.
 18. The system ofclaim 12, wherein re-rating comprises determining whether an event is abilled event or an unbilled event.
 19. The system of claim 18, whereinre-rating further comprises, in response to determining the event is abilled event, posting an adjustment in the current billing period. 20.The system of claim 18, wherein re-rating further comprises, in responseto determining the event is an unbilled event, creating one or moreshadow events to account for the re-rating.
 21. The system of claim 12,wherein the date is in a previous billing cycle.
 22. The system of claim12, wherein the date is in the current billing cycle.